PPG recently announced it has donated a boom operator compartment side window and will donate military aerospace coatings to the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate in Ashland, Neb., for restoration of an EC-135C aircraft that was one of the last to fly as the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command’s “Looking Glass.” Michael Holloway, U.S. Air Force tech. sgt. (retired), proposed the idea for the window donation to PPG, and the company decided to also donate the aerospace coatings.

“Upon examination of my flight records, I discovered that 049 was my very first Looking Glass Mission on November 11, 1987,” said Holloway, a production employee at PPG’s Huntsville, Ala., aircraft transparencies plant where the heated window was made to replace a broken one. “Like most Looking Glass missions, it was 8.3 hours in duration, and we took off from and returned to Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. Over my three years as a crew member of the Looking Glass, I flew 222 sorties and accumulated 1,910 hours of flight time, and 21 of those sorties were aboard 049.”

“We are very excited to be restoring this important aircraft and grateful for the support of donors like PPG,” said Michael McGinnis, Ph.D., executive director for the museum. “Looking Glass served an important role in the U.S. strategic deterrence plans and was the reason the U.S. won the Cold War.”

For more information, visit www.ppgaerospace.com.